Thursday on CNN’s The Lead, political commentator Van Jones reacted to the death of George Floyd in police custody by declaring that Americans are all “complicit” and that white people need to “look in the mirror” and ask themselves how they are “choking off black dignity.”
“I haven’t seen the black community this impacted, this upset since April 29th, 1992, with the Rodney King verdicts…” Jones said. “We have to look in our own hearts, how do we get to this place?”
“With the reality we have now, is we got to look in the mirror…” he added. “If you are white and are you watching this, look in your own life,” Jones ranted. “How are you choking off black dignity? Choking off black opportunity? Choking off black people from having an opportunity to thrive? Because it’s not just that officer. This is a much deeper problem. How are all of us complicit in this? And how are all of us allowing this to happen? I don’t have an answer to that today.”
All white Americans — even all white cops — are not complicit in Floyd’s death, nor are they “choking off” black opportunity. So speak for your own racism, Van, and quit fanning the flames of racial tension.